Reviews

Oh Holy Fools

I never realized how tragically romantic Nebraska could be until I heard Conor Oberst/Bright Eyes perform about a year ago‹although I had noticed, when I was much younger, that talking about growing up in Nebraska to strange men in California was a sure way to get free drinks/laid. This is not to say that all the songs on this split LP‹half Son, Ambulance and half Bright Eyes‹are necessarily about Nebraska, but there1s something about the melancholic delivery and particular references to playgrounds, winter, and the determination to cling to a childlike innocence that are inherently Midwestern, if not inherently Nebraskan. The two bands work off of each other well, alternating tracks between them. And while there are plenty of similarities between the two, such as slow-paced, melancholic delivery, near-acoustic instrumentation, etc., there are enough striking differences that there's no confusing where each song came from.